Anesthesioboist's Chocolate-covered Peanut Butter Balls
Melt 1 stick of butter.
Stir in 1/2 c packed brown sugar.
Add
-1 16oz. jar creamy peanut butter (about 1 1/2 c of PB - I use Peter Pan)
-1 1/2 to 2 c powdered sugar
-1 c graham cracker crumbs
-1/8 to 1/4 tsp salt
-1 to 2 tsp vanilla
and mix well.
Roll into 1-inch balls (about 50 of them) and chill.
Melt contents of a 12oz bag of semisweet chocolate chips with 2-4 Tb shortening.
Dip chilled balls into chocolate to coat, place on wax paper, and chill to set.
Let come to room temperature, then eat (they taste better at room temp).
Recommended non-edible treats of the season:
Books: Wishin' and Hopin' by Wally Lamb; The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey by Susan Wojciechowski; The Fourth Wise Man by Susan Summers; Two from Galilee by Marjorie Holmes; A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Movies/TV: A Christmas Carol (George C. Scott or Jim Carrey as Scrooge); Elf; By the Light of the Silvery Moon; The Grinch Who Stole Christmas; A Charlie Brown Christmas; A Pinky and the Brain Christmas; Little Women; The Nutcracker (Baryshnikov's or the new one by the Royal Ballet)
Music: John Rutter/The Cambridge Singers, Boston Pops, Vince Guaraldi Trio, Carols from the Yard, Candlelight Carols by the choir of Boston's Trinity Church
Places to visit: New York City, Canterbury Shaker Village (NH), and of course, BOSTON!
Oooh *nom*! I was just wondering what to bake for a friend when we go to his house Christmas evening.
ReplyDeleteQuestion - how much is 1 stick of butter? I've never seen it sold in sticks, so wouldn't know how much to cut off :-S
Hi, Jo! A stick of butter in the U.S. is 4 ounces, or 8 tablespoons, or somewhere around 113 to 125 grams. :)
ReplyDeleteThankee muchly ~:-D
ReplyDeleteOk - *how* do you get the chocolate to stick to the balls? No matter how much I dunked them in the chocolate, when I lifted them out, the chocolate came straight off - and it was quite solid chocolate, not runny. I ended up having to press the chocolate on!
ReplyDeleteOh, Jo, I haven't encountered that problem before - so I'm not sure what to suggest! The melted-chocolate-and-melted-shortening mixture should actually be QUITE runny itself, liquid enough to pour. I have not had any trouble coating the balls thoroughly, then chilling them to re-solidify the chocolate. Perhaps these semisweet chocolate chips we've been using are particularly well-suited for that? I don't know - I'm so sorry I can't be more helpful!
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't so much the runniness of the chocolate, but it just slooped back off of the balls... Ah well :-) Made them very thick chocolate, and they still tasted yummy! (I made half the batch a half-and-half dark and light chocolate - they looked like little Christmas puddings :-) )
ReplyDelete